Joystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
Joystiqhttp://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gifJoystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
en-usCopyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/04/the-joystiq-indie-pitch-humans-must-answer/#commentsIndie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. This week, former GSC developer and co-founder of Sumom Games, Eugeny Yatsuk, talks space chickens and shmups with Humans Must Answer. The babies are Yatsuk, co-founder Denis Matveenko and artist Olexa, by Olexa.

What's your game called and what's it about?

Humans Must Answer. It's a shmup, and one most will recognize as having an old-school vibe about it. You play as the pilot of a scout ship called The Golden Eagle, which is manned by chickens - they like to think they're a higher species of bird than they are.

They're on the lookout for something (we're not saying quite yet) and discover it within the solar system that us humans inhabit. As it is set far into the future, humans have expanded to the other planets and set up a number of industries upon them. They also have a huge legion of robots operating for them around space. So the enemies you'll come across consist of robots and humans. Yes, humans are enemies - there are far too many plots about evil aliens when, in fact, humans are most likely more evil than anything we could fictionalize.

The chickens attempt to contact them in a friendly manner but the humans respond by firing at them, which isn't particularly nice. They live to regret it though because we let you, the player, go on an explosive rampage against the aggressors. There is a purpose behind it other than mere carnage though, but that doesn't appear until later in the game's narrative.

How does working on your own indie project compare to working on a larger series such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

Very different. Faster decisions and far fewer constraints. It's a very good feeling to be the author and be responsible for all aspects of the game, and not just some cogs as part of a big company.

I know some guys who work on bigger projects and ownership of their creations boils down to things like, "I made that table and chair on Level 25." You start to fear for yourself when hearing this and want to avoid ever being in that situation. When I am 40 years old I'll look at what I have created in my life. I hope to be proud of it.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>greenlightgscGSC-Game-Worldhumans-must-answerigfigf-2013joystiq-indie-pitchpcsteam-greenlightsumom-gamesukraineSun, 04 Nov 2012 22:30:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-vets-form-new-studio-working-on-mmofps-called-su/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-vets-form-new-studio-working-on-mmofps-called-su/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-vets-form-new-studio-working-on-mmofps-called-su/#commentsVeterans of Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, developers of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, have formed a new studio called Vostock Games. The company will be developing a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter called Survarium. As RockPaperShotgun reports, it will be a Stalker-like MMOFPS, as the company was unable to secure the rights to the Stalker franchise.

There are just a couple more months remaining before we'll have to once again climb into our radiation suits and deal with the horrible mutants outside, so developer GSC Game World and newly named publisher Deep Silver have sent along some handy details regarding what we can expect from their forthcoming radioactive PC shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky.

According to the duo, the game, which promises a kind of "what-if" spin on the events depicted in last year's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, will place players in the role of a mercenary s.t.a.l.k.e.r. named Scar, caught up in a war over "territory, artifacts, and power." Pretty "dynamic" graphics are also promised, with Clear Sky supporting -- but not requiring -- DirectX 10. Other highlighted features include new and "overhauled" levels from the previous game, fast travel, "movie quality" cut scenes, and "greatly improved" AI. Additionally, a new animation engine and "hugely expanded" multiplayer for up to 32 players online or over a LAN will also be included, for those special moments when slaughtering hordes of radioactive mutants just isn't enough.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>deep-silvergscgsc-gameworldPCstalkerstalker-clear-skyThu, 26 Jun 2008 14:15:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/26/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-port-may-be-destined-for-360/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/26/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-port-may-be-destined-for-360/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/26/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-port-may-be-destined-for-360/#commentsAgain, we find ourselves in the awkward position of looking up a PC game to find out whether or not we should be interested in it. You see, another PC developer, in this case GSC Game World, has gotten all cozy with the Xbox 360. The company, responsible for the recent PC FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R., has announced that it is now officially a certified Xbox 360 developer. So, now we're looking up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to see if we should be excited. We seem to remember reading the name on Joystiq quite a bit a while back ... oh, look at that! It has an 82 average on Metacritic, so that's a good sign, right?

We should probably mention that GSC has not announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is headed to the 360, but it makes sense to us. Then again, so did Pogs. And we all knew how that turned out.

After spending some six years developing the PC first-person shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R., we figured it would be some time after the game's long-delayed release last March before we heard from Ukraine's GSC Game World again. We were, of course, wrong as not two months after the game's debut the studio came forward with a burst of enthusiasm for its radioactive baby, announcing plans for "several subsequent new products" in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise. Just what projects the company has in the works remains anyone's guess, though a new posting on GSC's official website confirms that the studio is now a certified Xbox 360 developer, which has us wondering if GSC plans to irradiate Microsoft's console with a port of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. anytime soon.

According to GSC, the effort to get Microsoft's seal of approval took the studio 2 years, and that "from now on, our old ambition to create multiplatform projects has become a reality." So, does this mean that yet another PC developer has been lured away, wooed by the sultry siren's song of console game development? Probably, though GSC chief exec Sergiy Grygorovych adds that the company plans to continue to pay "maximum attention to the PC platform." You hear that PC zealots? Put the pitchforks down please, we're all friends here.

According to GSC Game World's website, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl developer plans to announce "several subsequent new products in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe already" during July's Min-E3. Several projects? Already?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., originally scheduled for a 2003 release, was pushed back four years until March 2007. Keeping the multiple titles in the same universe might help speed up things, but we hope they don't get into too many development issues trying to juggle so much. S.T.A.L.K.E.R., despite having a title quite cumbersome to write, is a very entertaining and atmospheric (scary) open-ended shooter, and we'd love to see another game in the series -- we just want it this decade.